Killing an old friend
by Vault-Emblem
Summary: Joshua wasn't particularly surprised when Caellach confirmed that he had indeed been the one who killed his mother; that bastard would have done everything to gain more wealth and power.


**Killing an old friend**

Joshua wasn't particularly surprised when Caellach confirmed that he had indeed been the one who killed his mother; that bastard would have done everything to gain more wealth and power.

Now that they were facing each other on the battlefield, he just had to kill him. No grudge, no excessive hate. As Caellach said: "things happen", "this is war"; they had to act accordingly to those statements.

Still, that "Joshua, don't hate me" had irritated him. Even if they hadn't seen each other for a long time, he was still an arrogant oaf.

* * *

He had always been like that, but the swordsman never minded it; after all, everyone had virtues and flaws. Actually, it had been quite amusing listening to him blabbing nonsense about becoming a king.

He wouldn't lie, they were a great team, always getting their job done in no time. They used to go to their favourite inn to celebrate their victories, and gamble.

Thinking about that, the innkeeper was still angry at Caellach for stiffing him; he pondered if he should have told him but, in the end, he wasn't going to leave that place alive, so it would have been only a pointless waste of time.

* * *

 _\- Listen Caellach... I've got to kill you now. Don't hold it against me-_

 _\- You arrogant... You haven't changed a bit! I've always wanted to show you who's better, Joshua. And I'm even stronger that I used to be. I'm gonna wipe that smug look off your face for good!-_

* * *

Neither of them held back; it was a ferocious battle.

Caellach had really gotten stronger – he was proving it well- but the same went for Joshua.

That scenario felt almost familiar: it wasn't the first time they were facing each other in a duel. It was always Caellach who picked up fights with him, but they had always been light hearted, and they usually ended up in ties.

That time it was different. One of them wasn't going to survive to laugh about it at the inn like they used to.

* * *

When Joshua finally struck the final blow – ending Caellach's life and dreams- the rest of the battlefield was a mess: Valter's troops were still giving them a hard time; even with the aid of prince Ephraim, there were still too many Grado's soldiers to take care of.

He wiped the still warm blood off his face, as he prepared himself to fight again; only at that point he noticed Gerik's presence near him. He looked tired but – from the multitude of dead soldiers at his feet- it looked like he was handling the situation quite well.

\- Are you alright?-, he asked, and Joshua nodded, getting closer to him.

\- It looks like it's my lucky day-, he said, - and yours too-, he added, jokingly patting the mercenary's shoulder, as if they weren't on a bloody battlefield.

\- Maybe, maybe-, Gerik said, glancing at Caellach's dead body.

\- We should go, the battle is far from finished-, he said then.

Joshua nodded again.

Now it wasn't the right time, but then... who knew, maybe he could have even mourned his old friend.

* * *

 **Author's note:** hey! Thanks for reading this little fanfiction, I hope you liked it!

I wrote this to celebrate the 300 followers on my tumblr, so I made a sort of poll asking my followers to send me prompts, and I'm really happy that I got this one. I've always liked Joshua and Caellach's bromance (even "romance" because I'm a shipper trash), but I never gave it the attention it deserves, so I'm happy I got the occasion to explore their relationship.

Funny fact: while writing this I listened to "thanks for the memories", by Fall Out Boy, in loop. It helped me finishing this really quickly, and it gave me the idea to put Gerik in there too. It doesn't necessarly mean that Joshua was with Caellach before and now is with Gerik but, if you want to interpret the fic in this way, I won't stop you.

Let me know what you think about it. See you next time! **-Feeldespair**


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